GLENDALE, Ariz. – No matter the context or the stakes, four touches in 27 minutes makes for a quiet outing and Julian Hall was in the midst of one. To be fair, he was far from the only one who had room for improvement; Hall just one of 11 U.S. men’s national team players who struggled to respond to Mexico’s early intensity. It was hardly the start any of them wanted for the latest edition of one of soccer’s most storied rivalries, especially the USMNT’s three starters who were experiencing the duel for the first time at the senior level.

There is an art to being in the right place at the right time, though, and Hall is as well-known as an 18-year-old can be for boasting that kind of ability. As Gio Reyna rushed towards goal to his right, Hall knew exactly what to do – dart towards the goal line and wait for his teammate to send the ball his way. There was a small disruption to the plans, an attempt at a stop from Mexico goalkeeper Raul Rangel. It did not quite matter since Hall was exactly where he needed to be to make contact with the ball and with only his fifth touch of the game, slot it into the back of the net.

The USMNT were uneven over the course of a 3-0 win over Mexico on Saturday, unsurprisingly so for a team that lacks chemistry as head coach Mauricio Pochettino oversees a generational shift at the start of a new four-year cycle. Hall’s headline-making contribution, though, was an example in an exciting trend three games into the road to the 2030 World Cup – imperfect as things may be, the new-look USMNT are finding solutions to their problems and making the opportunities in front of them count.

Hall’s goal was not a clear-cut turning point as much as it was an example in the U.S. team refusing to waste their chances, rare as they might have been. The young-skewing USMNT are destined to fit Pochettino’s intense, attack-minded philosophy well and have shown glimpses in wins over Peru and Chile over the last week but against Mexico, the approach was markedly different. They were not particularly great at absorbing El Tri‘s pressure even after Hall’s goal and did not look like a version of the team onlookers enjoyed watching at the World Cup until after the halftime break. The entertaining style of play only came in flickers, neither side mustering more than seven shots over the course of the game.

“I think it was a good lesson, the first half, because it was the sense to work all together, suffer together,” Pochettino said post-match. “When you are not playing well or in the way that you plan to play, I think it’s so important to show that maturity like a team, like a group of players. The 11 players plus the players that were outside, they were suffering all together. It was that connection.”

Three games remain a small sample size but so far, the young-skewing USMNT have an admirable survival instinct that allowed them to overcome the intensity of a determined Mexico team and a crowd cheering them on fervently, even if Pochettino joked that his side won over portions of El Tri’s supporters by the final whistle. It helped that their opponents were their dramatic foils throughout – El Tri saw their clear-cut opportunities come and go over the course of the opening hour, barely forcing 20-year-old goalkeeper Diego Kochen to respond. When the time finally came through Roberto Alvarado’s shot in the 58th minute, Kochen was up for the challenge.

Then came the natural progression once the survivor’s mentality kicks in – confidence. The USMNT’s outing had been grueling for the better part of an hour but four minutes after Kochen’s save, Cavan Sullivan had an opportunity of his own he was unwilling to waste. Rangel made it easy, gifting Sullivan the ball and with a wide-open goal and an easy but stylish decision ahead of him. The 17-year-old offered the clearest reminder yet that he was in the midst of a breakout season, registering his first international goal with a flair that makes you believe a teenager can actually have a trademark all while working within Pochettino’s style of play.

“Keep chasing and go and press, always, the ‘keeper,” Pochettino said. “That is our concept. It’s compulsory. In this moment, it’s true that he felt that maybe [it] was too much to go. I remember from the dugout, we say, ‘Come on, keep going. Go put pressure to the ‘keeper.'”

Pochettino was hardly the only one encouraging Sullivan to take the strike.

“Honestly, it just shows just the willingness to go and press, to create turnovers, to put pressure, forcing them to make some mistakes,” captain Tyler Adams recalled. “That’s how we want to play the game, and for him to come in, he’s relentless in the way that he presses, his counter-pressing, all those things and then obviously, when he picks him off like that, I’m right behind him going, ‘Just turn and shoot!’ And he did it perfectly, executed really well.”

Sullivan, much like Hall before him, made his luck.

“All I really remember is being isolated up there,” Sullivan said. “It felt like I wasn’t going to get the ball and I would just have to recover and do it and get back into position, but sometimes you get the luck and the benefit of the doubt. I got the ball from there. I was just like, I’m not gonna dribble. I was a little too tired. I’m just gonna chip it, and I guess the rest is history.”

It remains too early to heap pressure on Sullivan, as easy as it might be, but on a day where the focus is on what the next chapter of the storied U.S.-Mexico rivalry might look like, El Tri seemed to recognize the 17-year-old’s quality. The boos after his goal were more audible than they were during the other goals, a tacit recognition that Sullivan is poised to do this time and time again over the course of what could be a very exciting career. He continues to take it all in stride, but the moment was not lost on him.

“Tried to use some words but I’ll just keep it simple,” he said. “It’s the best feeling I’ve ever experienced. A huge win, a huge day for me, my family. What an honor.”

Finally, the USMNT were in cruise control and had the right to be. Mateo Chavez ensured Mexico’s day went from bad to worse with a red card in the 67th minute, and not to be outdone by his younger teammates, Malik Tillman continued his impressive run of form in a U.S. jersey with his latest goal off, yes, another error from Rangel.

The stakes were hardly high on Saturday; the game was ultimately the latest in a series of exercises in acclimating a group of newcomers to senior national team careers they hope will live up to their potential. The young USMNT were under no obligation to make a statement, but over the course of a game that asked many things of them, they did just that. The U.S.’ rivalry with Mexico will likely ebb and flow over the course of their careers, much as it has for the players that came before them. So far, they seem up for the challenge and the demands that await them, their ability to rise to the occasion not catching too many by surprise. Hall and Sullivan were not merely at the right place at the right time for their goals – they and their fellow newcomers have joined the USMNT at the right place and time for their own individual journeys, as well as the team’s.

“Surpassed my expectations? No,” Adams said. “I think we all saw their qualities in the games that they were playing in MLS. You could see. It’s clear how quickly it’s going to translate to the national team level; you don’t know. I think the balance that we’ve been able to have in lineups, surrounding them with guys that have experience, they can go under the radar for some parts of the game. They don’t have to put in crazy, crazy performances. We just want to get them in the good spots where they’re comfortable to score goals, to go 1v1, to show your qualities that they have, and we were able to do that so there was just a really good balance, I think, everywhere on the field and that brought out the best in them, for sure.”